April 2, 2024
This was according to a statement issued by the Russian government, stating that the arrested suspects “were directly involved in the financing and supply of terrorist means to the perpetrators of the terrorist act carried out on 22 March in the Crocus City Hall in Moscow.”
The Russian authorities have confirmed the arrest of four more suspects behind the attack by gunmen on a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed over 140 people.
This was according to a statement issued by the Russian government, stating that the arrested suspects “were directly involved in the financing and supply of terrorist means to the perpetrators of the terrorist act carried out on 22 March in the Crocus City Hall in Moscow.”
Russia’s national anti-terrorism committee had also said on Sunday that it had apprehended three people who were “planning to commit a series of terrorist crimes.”
The FSB said Monday that four foreign citizens had been arrested in the operation in the regional capital Makhachkala and the nearby town of Kaspiysk.
The Interfax news agency cited an FSB video showing one of the detained men saying: “I took weapons to them, these guys who attacked Crocus City Hall. I took them weapons from Makhachkala.”
Russian health minister, Mikhail Murashko, earlier announced that the death toll had risen to 144 after one more patient succumbed to their injuries.
The authorities earlier claimed 11 suspects had been arrested previously, including four who allegedly carried out the attack.
Those four, identified as Tajik nationals, appeared in a Moscow court on Sunday on terrorism charges and showed signs of severe beatings. One appeared to be barely conscious during the hearing.
The Investigative Committee had also claimed that the perpetrators of the attack received hefty financial support from Ukraine.
The committee said, "Confirmed information that perpetrators of the terrorist act had received significant sums of money and cryptocurrency from Ukraine, which were used in the preparation of the crime."
A group of terrorists, whom Russian President Vladimir Putin described as being radical Islamists, stormed a large music venue just outside of Moscow.
They went on a gun rampage, killing people on sight as they went towards the main hall, and set it on fire.
Russian officials also suggested that the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall may have been organised by Ukrainian special services who used the Islamists as proxies.